1. Field of the Inventions
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the computerized training and/or evaluation of visual discrimination abilities, and more particularly, to retraining and evaluation of patients with damage to the visual system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Damage to the striate and/or extrastriate visual cortex often results in the impairment or loss of conscious vision in one or more portions of the visual field. For example, damage to the primary visual cortex, V1, for example, by stroke or trauma, can result in homonymous hemianopia, the loss of conscious vision over half of the visual field. Patients with visual cortical damage are either sent home or to “low vision” clinics where they are trained to improve their compensatory mechanisms rather than to attempt recovery of lost vision. This is in sharp contrast with the physical therapy aggressively implemented to rehabilitate patients with motor abnormalities resulting from damage to motor cortex. Among the reasons for this discrepancy are: (1) the inadequacy of common clinical tests to identify many of the specific visual dysfunction(s) resulting from cortical damage, and (2) the widespread belief in the clinical setting, that lost visual functions cannot be recovered in adulthood. See, for example, Commentary Horton J. C. (2005) Br. J. Ophthalmol. 89: 1-2, incorporated herein by reference.